Project V I R A L
by Namian Velius
Summary: Instead of finding himself in Manhattan, Alex ends up in Raccoon City in 1998. To make a puzzling situation go bad, there's a zombie Outbreak going on. In search for answers to why he's there and how the Outbreak happened, Alex finds himself becoming allies with Claire Redfield and discovers that everything isn't what he (or you) thought. Based on Claire A part in the R.E.2 Remake.
1. Beginning

It didn't like being submerged. It wasn't because it sent a faint tingle throughout it's entire form, which in turn made ever single cell feel as though it was on the verge of slipping away, nor was it because of the cold, which it hardly paid any mind to. It was because the water, _moving _water, made it hard to pinpoint any prey. It's whole body, if it could be called that, radiated with an endless wave of hunger. It needed to infect. It needed to _consume._

After what had felt like a long while, it felt itself brush against something rough. _Solid._ Spurned solely by the need to hunt, to feed, to _devour_, it latched onto the pillar with thin, black tendrils laced with the faint glow of crimson veins. The surface, concrete, offered very little resistance as it crawled it's way out of the water and over a sharp edge. From there, it waited.

It could sense food nearby. The warm signatures stuck out like a beacon amidst the dark. They scurried too and fro, just missing the black pulsating ball as they warily skirted around it. It currently didn't have the energy to force a chase. It was aware that it if lashed out too quickly, it's prey would run off and never return. It would be left alone with this gnawing hunger and nothing to satiate it. It was best to wait patiently for one of it's food sources to get a little too curious before ensnaring it.

So wait it did, and true to the predictions that it wasn't even aware it had, the prey lurked closer and closer. Then it got too close and it latched out.

Tendrils dug greedily into flesh. The prey squirmed, just as it was anticipating, but it wasn't keen on letting the creature go. It's food wasn't even strong enough to hold a candle to it's strength, despite how insignificant it's current size was. It's infection spread rapidly through the prey; a rat, as some tidbit of knowledge sparked, and pulled the the flesh into itself. The virus was quick to reconstruct the DNA to match it's own. _His _own.

He could think a bit clearer as his biomass shifted and swirled. It was slow going, slower than it _should _have been, but his body began to gradually reform into it's original template. The arms, the hands, the leg, and feet. The last part was his head, which he could sense creating the familiar bone structure. He could hear the rushing water as his ears mended and detect a rather disgusting and _powerful _stench when his smell returned. His thoughts strayed as he narrowed his location down to the _one _possible place he could be. When his eyesight returned, a deep scowl settled on his features.

Alex Mercer had found himself in the damn sewers.


	2. I - Nice to (M)eat You

_"There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself." ~Lemony Snicket, Horseradish_

* * *

The stench of the sewers was almost too much for his sensitive smell. Alex couldn't help but wrinkle his nose when he took it in and wisely decided to disable his olfactory sensory neurons. The sudden lack of one of his senses had quickly made him uneasy but his thermal vision and excellent hearing was more than enough to make up for it. He was a shapeshifting weapon, a _hunter, _so losing even one of his senses despite his ever evolving weaponry only served to put him on edge. Now that the smell was out of the way and he was able to focus on his location more accurately, Alex observed his surroundings before his expression darkened.

He didn't know how he ended up in the sewers. He tried racking his thoughts for any hints but the most he could get was _heat._ He had been set ablaze with something far more destructive than fire and he, for the life of him, could _not _remember what it was. With the fierce scowl having dissipated when he thought, Alex's brows knitted closely together as he attempted to remember. All he was getting was _static_, which was far more annoying than the faint buzzing in the back of his head that came from Redlight.

_Redlight._

It was a virus just like him. One that spurned out the world's deadliest viruses; one that had spawned _him._ He could still feel it within himself. He could hear it's harmonizing song as Redlight called to him. Alex was quick to turn his back on them and shut their calls out. He had _defeated _Redlight before... right?

Alex ground his teeth together in the form of a malicious sneer. Trying to figure out what had happened like he currently was is _not _helping. If he wanted answers, he would have to search for them himself.

He inclined his head up to the ceiling. With his strength, punching through these would be a breeze. The only issue would be what if people saw? He knew what he was and had a pretty damn good idea as to what would happen if humans catch sight of him bursting out of the ground. He could already hear the sirens and imagine the biting sting of bullets. The main problem was that Alex didn't think he could sustain anything more than five or six gunshot wounds before he lost any form of higher thought and fell into a frenzy. He simply didn't have the biomass to endure right now.

That's something he'll figure out when he actually got out of here.

Alex automatically stretched his thoughts back to the collection of minds he felt present within his head. Their thoughts, just like his own, were foggy and uncertain. If Alex had to give a word for it, he would say that they felt _drugged. _Regardless, he didn't need anyone else's memory right now beside his own, so he focused on their experience instead. And a sewer worker shoved into some unimportant corner of his mentality was exceedingly helpful with that.

It took about five minutes to find a manhole. The sewer system was larger than he had anticipated and, in his wariness of any humans that may be down here to see him sprinting at full speed, he overshot the closest opening by a landslide. The disgruntled Alex had to turn back and climb up the ladder that he passed. When he reached the manhole cover, he paused and glanced around with his thermal vision.

It immediately came to Alex's attention that something was wrong. The area was far too silent, more so than it _should _be. He had to be in a city, right? So there should be honking cars, thousands of footsteps, and even an occasional curse word or two. Instead, there was absolutely nothing. Besides the crackling of flames somewhere nearby, he couldn't see or hear anything alive.

He pushed the cover open and made his way out into the street. Devastation had immediately greeted his sight. There was a pile-up of cars heading down the street and a single truck that had found itself directly in a building. The sprinkling system had sprung into action and was only successful in dousing the flames on the half of the vehicle that resided within the wall. The other half was free to burn as it pleased, licking the bricks of the building without actually getting anywhere. The rain wasn't doing much to put out the hungry fire and, to make matters worse, a multitude of corpses were littering the street. Some had bullet wounds, others were burnt to a crisp, but _all _of them had a bite mark present somewhere on their body.

"_Rrrr..._"

Alex's attention drew to the entrance of an alleyway as a woman made her way out. She staggered in a heavy reminisce of a drunkard and her blond hair was dirty and matted. As if to match, even her dress had become dingy and full of holes with blood staining the collar beside her neck. With his sense of smell returned, her scent drifted on the breeze. He sniffed and felt his lips twitch in disgust.

Redlight was sickly-sweet, Blacklight was bitter, but this woman... This woman smelled like _rot. _Even as she tripped and stumbled over her own feet, the stench of decay wafting from her only grew stronger the closer she got to Alex. She showed up only faintly with his thermal vision and not at all within his Infected one. Alex didn't know what she was and that pissed him off, because even if it had consequences, he wanted to know _everything._

When she was within arms' reach, Alex grabbed her by the neck just before she could reach out to him. She released an empty, hollow moan and clawed at his arms as though they were mere obstacles in her way. He was curious about what made her act this way. It did remind him of Redlight but at a far less aggressive level. Even when he began crushing her throat, the woman appeared unaffected and continued with her movements. It appeared that, unlike Redlight, she had no actual reason to breath. In fact, not even her heart was beating. It reminded him of a zombie movie that one or few of his collective memories had seen.

_But those are just movies._

The woman had no qualms when Alex unfurled his feeder tendrils and dug them into her sides. There was no fear, no _nothing. _She still attempted to reach for him with her jaw moving up and down in the mechanical way that humans do when they were eating. He almost regretted bothering when he came across nothing but dead flesh. Or rather, mostly dead.

She was infected with a virus. A virus that killed people and resurrected them.

Because of it's nature of being a virus, it is incapable of surviving solely on dead flesh. Alex knew better than anyone that a virus needed a living host and the woman had enough energy to sustain the virus long enough to survive. That wasn't, of course, without complications. The virus consumes the cells of the host. The host then consumes other targets to help make up for it. As a virus himself, a powerful one at that, Alex was subconsciously being seen as a threat to this one. It didn't entirely matter when the body of the woman had soon melted into nothing more than a grotesque puddle of flesh. His tendrils had preserved what living cells it could and let the unusable portion of the body drip onto the ground like candle wax. With her out of the way, Alex retracted the tendrils back into himself and braced against the onslaught of memories.

Moments passed and Alex had yet to receive a thing. His shoulders relaxed as he casted the puddle a puzzled look. The brain certainly had limited activity. It would appear that it was too limited to pass on it's lifetime. That, in itself, was both a blessing, and a curse. On one hand, he could freely consume these Infected without having to worry about their lives and screams joining the many others he could detect within his mind. On the other hand, it also meant that Alex couldn't rely on them for any source of information.

_Shit._

He curled himself into a slight crouch. The biomass in his legs twisted and coiled. When he was sure that he had enough momentum, Alex pushed off into the ground and soon found himself flying several stories above the buildings. His feet landed on the wall of the apartment complex and he didn't hesitate in the slightest to sprint up the surface. His biomass dug into the bricks and left pivots in the structure from where his feet had been placed. When Alex had launched himself to the top of the roof, he stopped in his tracks and took a look around his surroundings.

He had expected to find himself within Manhattan, or at least somewhere in New York City. It had been a natural thought, one that felt _right, _but Alex found himself sporadically displaced. The layout of this city alone informed him that this wasn't NYC. The name of this place was there alright, just tingling in the back of his mind just like Redlight. He growled when he tried to grasp for it and it only slipped through his fingers like water.

The consistent moans of the undead pulled Alex from his thoughts. His silver gaze landed on a group of Infected that clawed at a fenced barricade with no true purpose. Alex couldn't help but grimace at the thought of consuming their flesh. It wasn't as satisfying as a human but without actually being able to hunt for the scum of the city, they would have to do.

He stepped off the building and plummeted like a rock in water. The concrete cracked and dented under his feet, the destruction caused by him alone blending well into the city. The Infected turned towards him upon his landing and began to shamble in his direction. These were easily the slowest prey that Alex had ever encountered. A bit more durable than Redlight, but it wasn't saying much. He was already consuming three by the time the last two reached him.

Feeling better than he had before, Alex quickly returned to the rooftops and made his way through the city. Survivors were few and far in between, and some of them had already been attacked by Infected if he even managed to make it to them. Asking questions would serve his purpose when the people he was talking wasn't in the process of getting their throat ripped out.

An explosion rang out several streets away from his location. Alex clung to the side of the nearest building to observe the plume of smoke through the rain. After coming to the conclusion that there may be some survivors there, he kicked off from the wall and headed in that direction.

* * *

Claire's body _hurt._

_Flying into a car would do that, _she thought with a grimace. Her blue eyes lingered on the wall of flame that had been produced from the combining efforts of the borrowed police car and fuel tank. It had separated her from Leon and now she was on her own.

_Go on_ _ahead! I'll meet you at the station!_

Claire's hands gripped the hilt of her handgun so tightly, her fingers hurt. The rain proved to be nothing but a nuisance as she made her way through the infested streets. Those things, those _monsters, _appeared to be undeterred by the lack of visibility as they reached out for her. She ducked under one's arms and kept going, trying to push the visage of what could happen to her out of her mind. Claire had a pretty good image thanks to the monster that had killed that officer over at the gas station.

She came to a stop when she came across a pile of cars that cut her off from the road. Just the thought of climbing over made her back throb.

Claire turned her attention back to the incoming monsters. They actually reminded her of the 1990 version of _Night of the Living Dead. _It had been about half a dozen years since she had seen it but they moved the same and their relentless need for flesh also was a shining similarity. The word _"zombie"_ would be quite accurate for the walking dead; she'll start using that term.

The zombies were still quite a way from her but it would still be dangerous should they corner her. Claire's gaze flicked across the area before landing on an alley. She quickly made her way to it's entrance, just barely skirting the moving zombie near the trash bin as she hurried down a small set of stairs.

_It really is like the end of the world._

Claire shivered after the zombie in the alley had brushed it's fingers against her pants. It hadn't found any purchase and she had already made her way back out onto the street, but that was still too close for comfort. She rolled her shoulders to get rid of some tension. Her features became pinched as the aching of her back reminded her how much of a bad idea that was. Regardless, the Raccoon Police Department was right in front of her. Claire just had to get in and she would be one step closer to meeting Leon.

_And Chris._

She regarded the zombies strolling around with apprehension. She took a deep breath and steeled herself. Claire moved at a jog and skirted the undead as much as possible. It helped that they growled and snarled before they moved, giving her ample opportunity to evade. Thank God that they weren't intellectual enough to set up any ambushes.

Claire pushed the gate open and closed it shut behind her. The zombies moaned as she gripped the bar. Her hands slipped of the metal, which had become slick due to the accursed rain. Now safe from the monsters that were throwing themselves at the gate, she turned to face the double doors of the RPD. As she appoached the door, a faint chill forced her to pause and glance back. It felt like she was being watched.

Finding nothing besides the zombies at the gate, Claire had frowned before entering the building.

She didn't know what she was expecting to be honest. The announcement on their way through the city had said that the station was going to take in survivors. Claire had imagined people, officers, maybe even _Leon. _Instead, all that she was left with was scattered items, bloody shoe prints, and the ominous whistling of the wind outside. The noise was sharply cut when the doors closed behind her, leaving Claire oblivious to the silhouette that dropped down on her side of the fence.

"Hello? Anybody here?!"

Silence was her only response. Claire's gaze drifted around anxiously as she approached the counter. There was some ammunition left on the surface, which she had snagged after breathing a quiet apology to whomever they belonged to. The sheer lack of activity alone was enough to set her on edge. If this was a safe haven, where was everybody? Could they have...?

Claire brushed away her speculations and focused her efforts on the computer. The grainy images showed after she booted it up, informing her that she was watching a live camera feed. A small spark of hope lit and she cycled through the videos for anyone that might still be alive. Surely there was someone here.

"Come on, Chris. Where are you?"

Her brother was the only reason she had even bothered entering Raccoon City. Sure, she met Leon and Raccoon City was absolute hell, but Chris was her goal first and foremost.

His familiar form didn't take an appearance in any of the cameras. The halls were completely empty up until she returned back to Camera 3. Claire's eyes widened a fraction and she quickly enlarged it. The figure was a police officer, thin, trying to shoot down a zombie that was making it's way towards him.

_"David? Martin?"_ After staggering the zombie, the officer stared direcrly into the lens. He pulled a small item from his back pocket and held it up. _"I found a way out! It's in here!"_

The officer barely managed to shove the item back into his pocket when the zombie reached him. It groaned and threw it's weight at him, which the officer had just barely managed to fend off by pressing his forearm to it's chest and shove it backwards.

_"Send reinforcements! East hallway!"_

He ran out of the view of the camera. Claire pulled away from the computer with a heavy frown. From the looks of it, or lack thereof, there _weren't _any survivors besides herself, and she couldn't leave someone to die.

She walked over to the building's right and took in the metal door that she had glimpsed on the way here. _Keep Out_ had been written on cardboard and duct taped to the shutter. The dried blood underneath provided colorful detail as to why. Claire grimaced as she reached over and pulled down the switch that obviously controlled the thing. It rose half of foot and stopped.

"Great..."

Claire got down on her stomach to pull herself underneath the door. She was getting use to the way that her bruised back ached at such an action. The scent of blood, with it's strong, metallic odor, invaded her nostrils. A vast majority of it had surrounded the shutter and she tried not to think about where it had come from.

She supposed that the _one _good thing to come from this was that the blood was too dry to stick to her clothes. Small mercies.

Claire clicked her flashlight on when she was halfway under and shined it into the darkness. She was greeted with a dark hallway that was easily the most scary thing she had ever seen. She pushed the rest of herself through and rose to her feet with a grunt, keeping a careful eye out for any enemies. As Claire stepped forward, she had a feeling that she might come across a few zombies here in the station. Where else could anybody have gone?

_Splash._

She froze when the sound shredded the perfect silence in mere seconds. After taking a moment to listen and ensure that nobody was coming after her, Claire glanced underfoot. She had expected to find herself in a puddle of blood. _Fresh _blood. As Claire hesitantly glanced down to see, she was ultimately relieved to find herself standing in water. It would appear that she had chosen the right day to wear her leather boots. The water most likely wasn't even warm.

_Chris, I _really _need you right now._

Claire began to round the corner. She tensed when the building creaked and shined her flashlight around for the source. It could have been the hanging light fixture or something hiding behind the boarded up door, she didn't know. Claire continued on until her path was cut off blocked by a metal, overturned cabinet. She went through a pair of doors that stood at her side instead in hopes that it would cut her around it.

No such luck, she realized with a groan. Claire had appeared to find herself in a press room. The only other door out was barricaded. She had warily approached the body resting in the center of the room to see if she could move anything out of the way.

It wouldn't do. It was blocked on the other side just as well. So moving the overturned locker would be a must.

Claire started to make her way back to the hall and rounded the corpse with apprehension. She paused when she took note of the box of ammo that could be seen pinned under her arm. Claire immediately regretted looking because, dammit, she _needed _it.

So, against her better judgement, Claire inched her way towards the corpse. It had been a female, she noted solemnly. Now, she just had to hope that the woman's body didn't feel like getting up and munching on her. As a form of caution, Claire kicked the woman's leg experimentally. The woman hadn't stirred so Claire decided to risk it and lower herself next to the body.

_Please don't come to life. Please don't come to life._

As if God managed to hear her prayers, the woman hadn't shifted and Claire was free to snag the ammunition. The box rewarded her with twelve more bullets. It was quite evident that the woman herself didn't get to use them. With no other reason to stay, Claire hurriedly left the room and shut the door tightly behind her. Hopefully if her body had decided to get up and walk, she wouldn't be intelligent enough to open a door.

Now back to her current predicament. The overturned cabinet. It wasn't quite what Claire was hoping to do but didn't complain about it. There was a way through and that's all that mattered, she'll take what she could get.

It had taken some effort but Claire had eventually managed to push the cabinet to the side. She took a few steps forward when a loud, metallic screech sounded behind her. Claire whipped around with her gun raised, aiming back the way she had come. Seconds had become a minute, and there was no other movement to be heard. Even the water on the other section of the hall was still. Taking that as a small sign that nothing was going to try eating her at this moment, she reluctantly turned her back to the way she had continued and walked.

Claire soon rounded another corner. Even from where she stood, she could spy a few bodies resting against the wall.

"Open up!"

The abrupt appearance of the voice made her start. Fists pounded on metal and the voice continued to shout. "Hurry! Open the goddamn door!"

Claire avoided the bodies and entered the room that the noise was coming from. The watchman's office, if memory served right.

"Open up! Hurry, open it!"

"I'm here!" she called out. Claire dug her fingers between the concrete and the metal so that she could pry the stupid door open. After straining, she managed to get the door open a foot when a hand reached underneath for her. Claire grasped it and ignored how tightly he squeezed, more focused on getting the officer on her side of the room alive than her own comfort. The officer was halfway through before he twisted so that his back was to the floor and his free hand pushed against the metal in order to speed up the process.

"Give me your other hand!"

The officer did as she asked and clung to her. Claire grunted as she pulled with all her strength. A deep-throated growl sounded on the other side of the door, then the officer began _screaming._

"Hold on! I got you!"

It was hard to pull someone to safety when they were writhing and screaming. Then he came out from underneath the door so easily, Claire almost fell into the wall behind her. The relief she felt at accomplishing her task soon dropped into horror when she looked at the officer and noticed that the entire lower half of his body was _missing._

"Oh my God!"

Claire released the man's hands and covered her mouth. The officer's lips moved, his whispered words escaping into the air that Claire had been too shocked to hear, and then he fell still. With wide, staring eyes, she waited for the officer to move, to do _anything. _Then she realized that he was dead. And it was all because she was too late.

"I'm so sorry..."

No one, absolutely _nobody_, deserved to go out that way. It was her fault. The officer would still be here, _alive, _if she tried harder...

No, she shouldn't think like that. It wouldn't do any good. And if the officer had lived, would she be saving his fate for an even worse ending?

The zombies on the other side startled Claire out of her dark musings. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply to calm her nerves. By the time she exhaled, she opened them, then paused. A small, black notebook was resting on the ground just centimeters from the officer's still fingers.

_I found a way out! It's in here!_

This was what he showed to the camera. She scrambled forward, hooking her fingers around the small object before pulling it open. She had to flick through a few pages until she stopped at the last couple of pages. A rather crude drawing was on it, showing a statue that looked exactly like the one that stood in the center of the main hall. It showed a tunnel underneath and there were other drawing of... statues? With symbols underneath. She didn't understand the significance, but if there was a way out, she'll take it.

_Wham._

Claire's attention snapped over to the door. The hinges rattled as something through itself at the barrier with force. She quickly stood up and raised her gun in preparation.

The door busted open and a zombie stumbled in. Her heart sunk when she recognized it as the cop that had been resting on the wall in the hallway. "Stay back!"

It didn't heed her warning. Claire hadn't expected it to. She shot at it once, twice, nailing it both times in the head, but the zombie just didn't want to go down. She fired one last time and it swayed dangerously. Claire thought that it would fall.

It didn't. Of course it didn't. She was going to have to keep shooting until it was completely dead, wasn't she? These zombies were going to eat through her bullets faster than she could find them, that was for sure. She grit her teeth and took aim.

Claire found that there was no need when a figure appeared behind the zombie and rested their hand on the side of it's head. Then, to her shock, the person yanked the zombie sideways and it's head cracked open on the door's frame. Claire had stared open-mouthed as the body fell unceremoniously to the floor. Her gaze flickered up to the person who was at fault.

It was a man. He was dressed in a white button-up with plain jeans and dress shoes, wearing a gray hoodie and leather jacket over his current attire. The hood had been pulled up, shadowing the upper part of the man's features, but his silver-blue eyes definitely stuck out and appeared to glow as they stared impassively at the zombie's immobile form. Then he lifted his head up and looked at Claire.

A jolt shot through Claire's body. Something was absolutely _wrong _with this man. She didn't know what or how but something about this person was dangerous and she had to run away as fast as possible. The only problem was that he was between her and the only exit available.

"Come on," he stated gruffly. His voice was rough and coarse, like gravel. He turned away and when his eyes, too sharp and cold, were off of her, Claire felt like she could breath. "There's more coming."

It was only then that Claire realized that she still had her gun raised. In fact, she had been pointing it at _him. _She lowered it to her side as she tried to process what was going on. While everything about him screamed _danger, _this man didn't appear to have an interest in harming her. Besides, he was right, Claire had other things to worry about.

She followed him out of the watchman's office and into the hall. A large growl tore through the air and glass shattered from the window during Claire's passing. She cried out and tried to slip away as a zombie fell through the opening, but it's dead fingers latched onto her ankle and didn't appear to be letting go any time soon.

The man reacted faster than Claire would have. In the moment it had taken for the zombie to grab her, he already had a shotgun aimed point blank in the zombie's face (had he always had that?) and fired.

She can't believe that she was so relieved to see someone's head get blown off.

"Do you want to _die,_" the man snarled. If his stare had been bad, his glare was worse. If anyone could kill people with just a dirty look alone, Claire had a feeling that nobody would be left alive after coming across him. "_Pay attention._"

It probably wasn't a good idea for Claire to return his look with a nasty glare of her own, but she did. Scary as he was, she _really _didn't appreciate his tone. She had self-preservation, of course, but Claire had never been one to take things lying down, and this guy's attitude certainly wasn't going to make her start any time soon. What. A. Dick.

Regardless of her thoughts about him, this man certainly knew what he was doing. He had led her down the hall when a couple more zombies had busted their way out of somewhere and headed their way. Claire dimly recalled the barricaded door on the way in. She raised her handgun in preparation, but the man was more than capable of taking care of it himself. He kicked the female zombie into the male zombie's way and, with quick reflexes, shot them both in the head with a single spread. They fell to the ground and Claire relaxed, not hearing any other zombies that could cause any problems.

That was her thought before a soft moan sounded behind her. As she began to turn around, cold, stiff fingers grabbed onto her shoulder and she found herself facing a larger, heavier zombie. She heard the man curse and the next thing she knew, the zombie's incoming teeth had been buried in the man's forearm rather than her neck. He didn't seem phased by it in the slightest, instead moving his arm to wrench the zombie away from Claire before slamming it into the wall. The sheer forced urged the zombie to release it's hold and the man whipped his gun around to crack the stock against it's skull. The zombie fell down and didn't get back up.

"Fucking Infected," the man huffed under his breath. He stalked past Claire, grabbing her by the arm as he did so and yanking her with him. She couldn't help but hiss loudly when her shoulder throbbed. He obviously didn't know how to be _gentle _and Claire tried to pull her arm out of his grip. She might as well be trying to remove a brick wall, because the man didn't budge and he sure as hell didn't seem to notice her futile efforts.

"Here." He shoved her forward. It happened so quickly and without warning that Claire stumbled instead. "It's safe, so get moving."

She rubbed her arm as she shot the male a venomous look. She turned to face the direction she had been pushed in and paused. The metal door, which had only opened half a foot, had now been pulled entirely open.

"What are you waiting for?"

Claire glanced back to see the male chucking his shotgun further into the hall. The firearm spun before clocking the heavy zombie right in the face. The man faced her with an impatient expression and forcibly steered her through the opening. She was brutally shoved, _yet again, _through the opening. After straining to stay upright, she whipped around to give the man a piece of her mind.

Instead, whatever she was going to say drifted from her thoughts as she watched the man reach for the bottom of the door and pull it down with strength that someone of his stature shouldn't have. It screeched just like the noise she had heard earlier in the hall, informing Claire that _this _what she might have heard before shit hit the fan.

_What the hell?_


	3. II - When Dead Men Talk

_**Right, so rewriting took a bit longer than I anticipated. Not only did I rewrite chapter 2, I had the brilliant idea of going back to others, so it's a little bit different. I wanted it to have less of a "he must've dimensionally traveled" feel. The main reason why it took so long? Gods, this chapter just did NOT want to take. Either my internet cut out mid-way or the website refused to save or I saved OVER it, I rewrote this so many times, there came different points where I was just tired of it. I couldn't access the backup save because it apparently didn't exist, so I wrote this again and again from scratch. And I still need to finish Chapter III and the Bonus. This epidemic isn't helping much either and my job is "essential", which means I'm always stressing out and...**_

_**Anyways, I'm not dead yet and I finished this! I also might've had yet another brilliant idea and started working on an original Zelda story... *cough*. Yeah, that won't be posted or primarily focused on until this one is finished. I don't even think it's good enough to bother... From now on, my account will be listing the books I'm (eventually planning on) working and what chapter I'm on, so if I haven't posted in a while and I don't want you guys being hung up on it, I'll write "Break" on the end. I don't wanna be that person that's gone for months... which I admittedly did. So here this**_ **_is!_**

* * *

_"Nothing is impossible to kill. It's just that sometimes after you kill something you have to keep shooting it until it stops moving." ~Mira Grant, Feed_

* * *

The woman was staring.

Alex scowled as he observed her. She was young, late teens to early twenties, with her auburn hair pulled up into a ponytail and bangs framing her face in a way that made the blue in her eyes stand out. She had on a red leather jacket with a black tank top underneath, which was accompanied by jeans and a pair of leather ankle-high boots.

"So you're back... Just like you said."

The voice appeared to snap the woman out of her thoughts. Both she and Alex turned their attention to the side, where a dark male was holstering his gun. The name _Marvin Branagh _was attached to the right breast of his light blue uniform, also accompanied by the single gold bar pinned to his collar on either side. Without any threat in their current proximity, Branagh's form slumped and his hand fluttered to the wound in his abdomen. It was difficult to tell what sort of injury it was beneath the bandages and tape but Branagh appeared to be in bad shape. Alex felt like he knew what it was anyways.

His only response to the comment was a grunt. Without bothering to contribute to a conversation, he stalked past the woman in the direction of the doors. The first step was to secure the entry and ensure that no potential problems can get in the way of his questioning. Canon fodder were easy to kill but an absolute nuisance to mow through. It was bad enough that he felt as though he had wasted enough time.

"Friendly guy, isn't he," the woman muttered when she thought that Alex was out of earshot. The officer released a breathless chuckle, probably agreeing with the comment

"Don't judge him too quickly," Branagh then advised. "He did go in the hall to save you, after all. Wouldn't hear anything about it when I told him that the east side was full of zombies."

Not only did the east side have a few Infected here and there, the metal shutter had a piece of cardboard taped on it with _Keep Out _written in large, hard-to-ignore letters. It made Alex wonder if this woman had any common sense.

"Right..."

Alex had grabbed a bench that he began moving across the room. He had calculated the strength that a human of his stature should have and was moving furniture based on that strength. The result involved a lot of scraping on the wooden floor.

"Let me help you," Branagh said. He took a step forward before he was pinned by an icy glare.

"Not happening," Alex growled. "With that injury, you're a liability. _You._" He flicked his gaze to the woman. "Make sure he sits down and doesn't do anything stupid."

The woman gave him the dirtiest glare he had probably ever received but did as he said regardless. After she collected the laptop on the table and led the reluctant officer up the ramp to find some place to sit, Alex returned his focus to barricading the front door.

Regressing to human limitations was almost agonizing with how quick he wanted to be done with everything.

Once the door was secure, Alex strode over to the woman and the officer. They had chosen to sit on a bench with a laptop placed on Branagh's lap. They looked up once he was in their vicinity.

"You missed introductions." The officer motioned to himself before the woman. "I'm Marvin and that's Claire."

Their names weren't really of any importance to Alex. Regardless, he nodded and responded with a curt, "Alex." He attention remained solely on the officer. Now for answers. "Where am I?"

Branagh inclined an eyebrow. "You're at the police depart–"

"I know that," he grumbled. "I want to know what _city_ I'm at. The last time I checked, this wasn't Manhattan."

Claire and Branagh glanced at each other with varying levels of confusion. The officer frowned before regarding Alex seriously. "You're in Raccoon City. Pennsylvania."

That was the place that tingled and squirmed in the back of his mind since he had first realized that this wasn't New York. Raccoon City, a medium-sized area with roughly 100,000 residents and home to both the Saint Michael Clock Tower and Raccoon City Zoo. How Alex had gotten here and why, he was quite certain that the answers rested in the mind of the person that he was using as a template. The only frustration he had was that he couldn't willingly access those memories– or _any _memories, really.

Alex scowled. "This Outbreak. How did it start?"

Branagh released a long sigh. It let him know that they had reached a crux in the problem. "Nobody kno– _knew,_" he corrected. "There were speculations of course, conspiracy theories, but nothing concrete."

"Was there anything about companies? A place that worked on biological or genetical research? Pharmaceutical and chemical are just as plausible."

"The only places I can think of are the Gentek Research Facility and the Umbrella Corporation." Branagh furrowed his brows. "You don't think they're the cause of this."

"This Outbreak is a bioengineered virus," Alex responded distantly. "You can't make this without having the appropriate equipment. And creating a virus this catastrophic would require lots of work."

In all honesty, he was partial to investigating Gentek. It had more familiarity than Umbrella did, and it felt like something important was there. Something _really _important.

_"This is probably going to hurt a bit but... Just–just come back when you can, okay? For me? ...I don't know why I'm even bothering to ask this; I doubt you can hear me..."_

"Where can I find them?"

Branagh thought about it for a moment. "From what I heard, Umbrella had been destroyed earlier this week. Gentek might be in the same situation, but I'm not sure. There's not even a way to enter the facility without some sort of identification."

Alex huffed in irritation. He wanted their location, not their status, though it all might be the same to Branagh since the officer didn't know of his abilities. If he was choosing to withhold it... Well, judging from the man's personality, he probably thought that he was protecting Alex from wandering through a street full of infected. In reality, he was just being annoying.

"What about S.T.A.R.S.," Claire spoke up. When Alex and Branagh both stared at her blankly, she decided to elaborate. "They're the RPD's elite force, aren't they? If anyone knew about those two companies, wouldn't it have been them?"

A spark lit in Branagh's face. "Now that you mention it, S.T.A.R.S. had an incident a couple of months ago..." Alex's interest peaked.

"What incident?"

"It happened in late July... Over the course of months, there was this spree of murders that couldn't be solved. There were no motive or any leads, so the chief, Irons, handed the case over to S.T.A.R.S. They managed to narrow a search down to a section in the Arklay Mountains.. Bravo Team was sent to investigate. When they hadn't returned, Alpha Team went after them. Out of the twelve officers that went, only five came back." He frowned. "Official reports stated that the cause rested on a cannibalistic family and their attack dogs. S.T.A.R.S., on the other hand..."

"They said what really happened," Alex clarified. Branagh nodded.

"They talked about zombies, Tyrants, human experimentation, all of that created in an underground laboratory headed by Umbrella... Irons thought that they were making it all up to give each other some closure for the brutal loss of their teams. I thought the same too, up until a few days ago."

"...Do you know what happened to my brother," Claire asked. Her tone was tentative, almost as though she were afraid to ask. "Chris Redfield, my brother, he's in S.T.A.R.S."

"Chris?" Branagh blinked before a small smile pulled at the corners of his lips. "Yeah, he's alive. On vacation actually, in Europe."

"Europe," she breathed, and it was like all the tension she had was lifted off her shoulders. "Good. That's good."

Alex, on the other hand, was wondering what Redfield would be doing in Europe. If he was anything similar to Claire, then he most likely would have cared about his teammates. And, from what Alex could glean from his permanent residence of soldiers, any time members of a squadron underwent some form of hardship with one another, their bondage as brothers-in-arms grew stronger. It was further implied when that team pushed through a form of trauma that very few were likely to go through. S.T.A.R.S. appeared to be a perfect example of that, so why would he be across the continent instead of with his fellow teammates? Actually...

"Where are the other S.T.A.R.S. members?"

He had once more gathered the attention of Branagh and Claire. The officer barely managed a shrug before a pained grimace had overtaken his features. "Barry Burton and Rebecca Chambers are out of the city, on vacation just like Chris, but Jill Valentine has been missing since this mess started, and Brad Vickers..." The grief on Branagh's face was as clear as day. "Brad's gone."

With three former S.T.A.R.S. on vacation, it couldn't be a coincidence. Something in Europe had to be important then. Something regarding Umbrella...

Alex curled his fingers in frustration. It looked like Umbrella might be the cause of this mess, which meant that he was going to have to wait to investigate Gentek. His first priority was to wipe out the goddamn imbeciles in this city who thought that playing God was acceptable.

"I got what I came here for. Thanks."

And with that, Alex began walking away. He thought about heading to the second floor and leaving through a window, thus leaving the main hall relatively safe for Claire and Marvin. That idea was immediately yanked from his mind when he felt a hand grab onto his shoulder.

A snarl tore from Alex's lips before he could even think about it. He could feel his biomass coil just beneath the surface as he whipped around and shoved the person away. Their body, weaker than he had anticipated, stumbled back a few steps in an attempt to regain their balance by the time he held his fists up.

"What the _hell _is your problem," Claire hissed. Her blue eyes were like fire as she glared. Alex returned the expression with an angry scowl of his own.

"Don't touch me."

"Oh, so you're able to yank me down the hallway all you want, but I can't keep you from being a damn idiot?" Her glare intensified. "You're going to leave the station, right? And how the hell do you think you're going to be able to get through the streets?"

Alex relaxed his stance, though his expression hasn't eased up the slightest. He didn't understand why she cared. Shouldn't humans only bother with their own wellbeing? "Kill anything that tries to eat or shoot at me."

"With just your fists?" Claire didn't even wait to hear the affirmative resting on his tongue. "Look." She held up a small, black notebook. "The officer that died in the east hallway had this on him. He said that the way out was in here. Now, you can either risk your life going out into the streets or you can increase your chances of survival by helping me find the entrance."

Alex grit his teeth. He was going to go through the streets just as he planned, but he was perplexed as to why Claire had even _cared._ She obviously disliked him and he hadn't done anything to improve on that front, so why...?

Okay, fuck it. He'll humor her for now.

"Fine. Show me what you got."

Claire's glare had lost it's edge in her surprise. She had probably thought that he would refuse, which he would do after she showed him whatever she was talking about.

"Hold on, you said that an officer had that notebook?" Branagh held his hand out. "Let me see."

Claire was either too trusting or too naive because she lent it to the lieutenant without even a second of hesitation. Branagh pulled it close to observe before his features became grim and somber. "This was Elliot's."

A few seconds of silence passed then Branagh began to flip through the pages. It was more like a small sketchbook instead of a notebook. Elliot was a pretty decent artist. The deceased officer had made the looming effigy within the main hall, now known as the Goddess Statue, as well as various other statues quite detailed.

"It looks like you'll need to find some medallions hidden around here to open the statue. There should be a passage underneath." Branagh was handing the notebook back to Claire. She didn't seem to mind that it was now stained with his blood. "Find the medallions and get out of here."

The notebook was pulled from his hand and Branagh clutched the wound at his side with a grimace.

"We need to get you to a hospital," Claire informed.

Branagh shook his head. "No, there's no need. You two need to focus on escaping."

So the lieutenant never planned on coming along to begin with. Any time humans were given a chance of survival, they took it without hesitation. So why was he different?

Alex's gaze flicked to the injury that Branagh held. Perhaps he should have paid a closer mind to it. The blood was still fresh, indicating that it was about a day old, yet the man's pale pallor and sweaty skin indicated that it had to be infected. An infection only got that bad after a few days. In order to be this severe within a short time span, he had to have come across the virus. And now he was trying to make sure that he stayed away from them when he turned. Branagh was a Carrier.

"I'm not just going to _leave–_"

"You're bitten, aren't you?" Alex interrupted. Claire shot him a dirty look, which he carelessly shrugged off. His eyes had zeroed in on the wound that was still covered. Beating around the bush wouldn't help anyone. "That injury right there."

Branagh grimaced, and that alone answered Alex's question. "...Yeah."

"A bite..." Claire quietly repeated. She glanced over at Alex. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Think of it like a zombie movie. A virus spreads through bodily fluids, like blood or saliva, so when someone infected with the virus bites someone..."

"They turn..." she finished. Realization slowly dawned on her face and she widened her eyes as she stared at Alex. "You... You got bit too! In the hallway!"

She remembered that? Hell, he barely did. Alex hadn't even considered it to be important enough to. He huffed and rolled his sleeve back, showing her the unmarked skin. "Not bit."

The woman stared at his arm with disbelief. "But I saw..."

"Claire."

She turned her gaze towards Branagh. "Those supply crates over there by the counter... There should be a radio there. Will you go get it?"

"Yeah..."

Her gaze flicked to Alex's arm once more before she walked off. He barely managed to pull his sleeve down when Branagh called his name.

"Here." He held up an object in his hand. "Take it. You'll need it."

The object was a sheathed combat knife. Alex examined it momentarily before coming to a conclusion that it would snap like a toothpick in his hands. Besides, it wasn't like he needed it. "I'm fine."

"Just take the damn knife."

From the looks of it, Branagh wasn't going to take no for an answer. Alex huffed before reaching for the weapon. When he grabbed it, Branagh didn't let go like he had expected. No, he leaned forward.

"You take care of Claire, you hear?"

Alex scowled, now realizing what the officer was doing. "She can take care of herself."

"Really? Enough to get out of this city alone?" Branagh's lips pursed when it became apparent that this wasn't going to change Alex's mind. "Look, the S.T.A.R.S. office is here in the station. You'll find it and any possible answers they might have dug up, but only if you help Claire out. Deal?"

Alex grit his teeth in annoyance. He didn't _need _to help _anyone _to do _anything._

But he also knew that Branagh was right. Claire might not even make it anywhere close to the edge of the city. And despite how much Alex seemed to piss her off, she was still willing to try helping him out even though she had _no _idea what he was capable of.

"_Fine,_" he growled. Branagh let the knife go and he slipped it into his pocket, allowing his biomass to store it for him. "You have no idea what you're signing her up for."

After all, Alex hadn't played human any longer than he needed to, and bioengineered viruses tended to mutate quicker and more dramatic than a natural one. If there were Infected he couldn't tackle with human strength, he would go all-out. He didn't have any false hope that Claire wouldn't freak out once she saw what he could do either. In fact, he was willing to bet that she would shoot more than a few bullets at him.

"Maybe, but I think she'll be fine."

Right. Well, Alex will give a dying man the satisfaction of believing that he's right. It's not like what he thought would matter later on.

Claire walked back over, blissfully unaware of the conversation that took place as she clipped the radio to her waistline. It didn't mean that she didn't pick up on Alex's aggravation towards Branagh when she looked up. A frown grew on her pink lips. "Something happen?"

Silver eyes met blue but it was Branagh that answered.

"No, nothing."

"Uh-huh..." Claire's gaze remained trained on Alex as the man scoffed at the officer's words. Deciding that it was wise to put questions off till later, she focused the subject onto something else.

"Sorry, Alex. There was only one radio."

He grunted and waved her off with disinterest. "I'll grab the Lieutenant Branagh's later."

He walked away from them and started heading for the mesh gate that blocked off the receptionist room. When he realized that Claire hadn't move, he paused at the top of the ramp and glanced back. "Are you coming or not?"

She mumbled what sounded suspiciously like _"Asshole" _before she began to follow. Alex made his way to the gate and cut the tape covering the power box on the side. He expected it to be the control for the mesh gate but certainly hadn't expected it to be a switch. He inclined an eyebrow and pulled it down. The box beeped before the gate started rising.

"So you're from the Big Apple." Claire glanced at him. "Do you have any idea how you ended up in Raccoon?"

Alex's brows knitted together under his hood as the gate stopped moving and he strode into the receptionist area. His– _Their _memories were still a jumbled mess and he still had that distinct feeling that the people he had consumed were drugged. The only exception appeared to be the very person he derived his template from; Dr. Alexander J. Mercer. However, those memories were either incomprehensible fragments or missing sequences altogether.

"Not exactly..." He could remember Dr. Mercer shaking hands. A business deal? Then there was a familiar woman's voice... Dana? "I think I was with my sister."

To be accurate, _Dr. Mercer's _sister, but he still meant it. Alex felt attached even though he didn't think that _he _has ever had a conversation with her

_Just come back to me when you can..._

Were those words spoken to Alex or Dr. Mercer?

"You have a _sister_?" Claire's tone was full of disbelief. Alex had made his way over to the door, carelessly bypassing the bloodstains when she had said that. He looked over at her with a scowl. "Is that really so hard to believe?"

"No! ...Maybe a little. You don't exactly seem like the brother type."

He gave a grunt as his attention drifted back to the door. "You're probably right about that." His eyes narrowed. "But she's all I got right now."

Claire drew silent and Alex took that as a cue to move forward. He opened the door and walked through. Almost immediately, the atmosphere took a dramatic turn. Lightning flashed from outside and rain pelted the windows. The wind, mostly unheard in the main hall, drifted around as though the ghost a building was moaning.

"Talk about creepy," Claire muttered. Alex didn't exactly deign a response as he continued through the hall. The only thing that was remotely a threat was the body slumped against the wall at the end of the corridor, and it certainly wasn't towards Alex.

A radio crackled as they approached. Someone was talking into it, the sender cutting out at various points through the relay. All that Alex bothered to understand was that a helicopter would be approaching the station within fifteen minutes. It would be the perfect opportunity to get Claire out of here.

He glanced up at the corpse hanging from a pipe on the ceiling. When Alex reached for the radio attached to it's waist, the body's head split open and sent it to the ground. It landed on the device so hard that by the time Alex picked it up, wires were sprouting from the radio and it refused to turn on. He wouldn't be able to fix it without the tools that they were obviously lacking in.

"Yeesh... Look at this."

Alex flicked his gaze over to Claire and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. He had thought that she was observing the radio on the body he had bypassed. Receiving messages were broken enough that he held no hopes that the radio would send any. Instead, Claire was holding up the head of the corpse, showing off the torn cheek muscle and hanging jaw of a body that was dead for a few hours, at the least.

He had told Branagh that Claire could take care of herself. Apparently he overestimated her.

"Try _not _touching dead bodies," Alex advised. He dropped his hand to his side to stare at her. "You don't know if they will get up to attack you."

He didn't know either and if he had taken a moment to apply the virus' genetic code to his own, he would be able to _see _the Infected. That was oversight on his part. "Now come on. We're burning night and I want to get you out of here by morning."

"I agree with you there..." Claire gave the body one last glance as they moved away.

They didn't get far before both of them came to a stop at the wall that conjoined the two corridors. A claw more was etched into the metal, strong enough bend it but not enough to rip it out. Claire ogled it with wide eyes.

"What do you think did that?"

Alex narrowed his eyes. An image of a large, reddish-pink figure with bulging muscles, sunken eyes, and lipless mouths permeated his mind shortly before he dissuaded it. Those creatures, Hunters, were much stronger and more than capable of tearing a hole through metal instead of bending the frame. Besides, the scent didn't match either.

He stepped forward and ran his fingers over the markings. They were more shallow than he had anticipated. Smaller, too. Alex speculated this creature to possible be around human height. It was quick and agile with what seemed to be a high jumping ability or climbing ability. And it's scent...

Alex's nose wrinkled at the faint stench of rotten flesh.

"The virus evolved," he stated. "Keep on eye on the ceiling. It can climb."

"Climb? You mean that this thing can get _worse_?"

"That's what bioengineered viruses are made for."

"You seem to know a lot about it..."

Alex took a moment to analyze the tone she used for that comment. It didn't sound accusatory, more like a statement. Had he been revealing too much about the virus? It did take one to know one, after all. The only other people that would know it just as well were the people who created it...

"Raaaagh!"

Claire jumped as an Infected slammed it's hands against the window. Alex grunted, finding the action more than a little annoying. He eyed the Infected with distaste as it continued to hit at the glass, it's dead eyes focused solely on Claire.

"Alex, she's going to get in."

That was true. Even as they watched, web thin cracks were spreading across the glass. The Infected lacked the brain activity to utilize their strength in any meaningful way. It was a wonder on what the creators were trying to accomplish. While it would work as a bioweapon, it was too faulty and couldn't be controlled.

"Let it."

Alex stepped to the side so that he was out of sight of the Infected. He flicked his gaze from the window to Claire. "Back up a few steps."

"...What are you planning," she asked. Nonetheless, she did as she was told and pulled her SLS Handgun out in preparation.

"I'm going to kill it."

The glass shattered and the Infected came toppling over the sill. Claire raised her gun to shoot at it, but Alex beat her to the punch. All he did was raise his foot up and bring it down while the Infected was about to get up.

"Well..." Claire stared as he pulled his bloodied foot out of the caved-in head. "You definitely killed it."

"Yeah." He grimaced as his stilled his biomass, which was tingling in excitement at the blood coating his shoe and the bottoms of his pant leg. If he absorbed it now, Claire would definitely know that something was up. He shifted his gaze to the hall and frowned when he caught the sight of the end of it. To make things worse, their route was cut off from a bunch of junk used to make a barricade. It looked like even the ceiling had collapsed, most likely the cause of some sort of explosion. There's no way he could move this with human strength.

"It looks like we're cut off."

"Yeah..."

Claire pushed through a pair of red double doors off to the side. Alex followed her in, observing the room for any mediocre threat. The room was scattered with papers and furniture, with a blood-covered map plastered on the white board in the back of the room. He spared a quick moment to glance at the yellow chain blocking the door before paying attention to the map.

S.T.A.R.S. office wasn't on the first floor. He should have expected it and asked Branagh about it's location before they left. Too late now. Besides, Alex didn't want to talk to the officer any longer than he had to; he might end up roped into something else.

_The safety deposit room looks important,_ he mused. Weapons might be stored there and Alex would have to get something better than a _knife _if he intended to keep up with this charade. Like he had said, one hit and his knife was a goner.

"It looks like this place went to hell pretty quickly," Claire stated. "First the survivors started a fight that killed some officer then a mob attacked the station. They have one hell of a rep sheet." She strode over and peered at the map. "What are you doing?"

"Planning," Alex grunted. "I'll need a gun." He tapped the safety deposit room and the west office. "These are the only two places I can think of getting one. If not there, then I'll have to search every Infected with a police uniform we come across." It'll be easier to feign being human if he had something to put distance between him and the Infected.

Claire hummed in agreement. "Well, we can't get to those rooms through the doors. The one in here is chained and too thick for me to shoot off." Her gaze drifted over Alex's head and she moved in that direction. "We'll be able to slip through there."

She was talking about a window near the ceiling. The glass had long been broken and a pair of pallets were strapped in yellow tape underneath it, leaving a perfect route to the hallway. Claire had slipped past Alex and was already making her way on top of the pallets. She rested her hands on the wall as she peered over the sill to the other side.

"There's a zombie hitting a vending machine," she informed, pulling away to look at Alex. "It doesn't look like it'll notice us."

He responded with a curt nod. "Don't do anything about it until we are both on the other side."

"Alright."

Claire rested her fingers on the sill and hopped up. A small grunt could be heard from her as she swung one leg over, then the other, before quietly slipping off. Her landing was soft on the other side, too soft to interrupt the banging that could be heard.

Alex didn't hesitate to follow suit. When he landed, he glanced over to find Claire patting down a body to find some more ammunition. She didn't appear to have any qualms about scavenging off of a corpse. The makings of a true survivor.

"What about him?" She raised her gun up and aimed at the Infected. True to her earlier observation, the Infected was slamming his meaty fingers against a vending machine. That most likely proved that the virus retained something from the Infected's former life. One look at the zombified officer and it was easy to tell that the person it was before wasn't exactly the type to visit a gym.

"Let me handle it."

Claire furrowed her brows, quite obviously not liking that thought. She didn't have as much of an attitude towards Alex now then she had earlier either. That was good. It would be harder to protect her otherwise if she felt the need to rebel to make a point. "You need to save your bullets. Who knows what else we'll run into."

"...Okay," she relented and lowered her weapon.

With the firearm out of the way, Alex began moving towards the Infected. It was completely unaware of his presence until he was nearly upon it. Then, as if finally sensing the threat, it began to turn and face him. By then, it was too late.

Alex's fist collided with it's nose. The bone crunched satisfyingly beneath his knuckles and the force of his hit made the back of the Infected's head collide with the vending machine, sending cracks branching out in the plastic. He grabbed the Infected by the throat before it could even attempt to retaliate, then he began punching it repeatedly in the face.

It was a little amusing. The Infected's efforts to bite him were utterly futile, but that didn't stop it from trying.

Despite that, Alex knew that there was something missing from this ordeal. The widening of eyes. The rush of adrenaline. The _fear._ All of that was absent and Alex wished that it _wasn't_.

"Alex!"

Claire's cry of warning momentarily distracted him. It was rather unnecessary, since he heard the movements behind him long before she said anything. He released the Infected in his hand in favor of spinning around, a fist rounding towards the incoming corpse while it staggered and snarled towards him. Flesh met rotting flesh and the Infected went colliding into the other machine. It fell into an ungrateful heap and Alex had no issues introducing it's skull to his shoe.

With the nuisance gone, he faced the Infected he had originally started with and grabbed it's head in his hand. He slammed it against the vending machine and the plastic shattered. All it took was one last shove against a particularly sharp piece of plastic and the Infected slumped on the floor. It was only then that he took note of the expression plastered on his face. Torn between a snarl and a smile, his lips were pulled back to show way too many teeth for it to be natural. The expression dropped from his features in an instant, and silver eyes flicked back to see if Claire had caught it.

Of course she did.

Her own blue eyes were wide, her face entirely void of color. Even from here, he could hear her heart racing in her chest. It was a natural response when the hunted were in the presence of a hunter; Alex _had_ expected it, he just thought that it would take a little bit more for time her to be looking at him like that. He didn't want fear from _her._ Not right now.

_Space, _his mind provided for him. That should do the two of them some good.

"W-wha–" Claire began. She didn't get far before she flinched away from Alex when he approached. He lips tugged downwards at that wide-eyed stare. It wasn't unfamiliar, but it was just as unwelcomed.

"Take the office. See if you can find anything useful in there." He nodded towards the safety deposit room. "I'll check in there. Shout if you get into in any trouble."

He didn't bother waiting for a response. Alex slipped past Claire and disappeared behind the metal door.

When it closed shut behind him, he paused and listened to the hallway. Claire was still standing there with her heart racing a mile a minute. She eventually took a deep breath. Her heartrate eventually slowed and she released a long, shaky sigh.

"Okay," she muttered quietly. "Let's do this."

Alex heard her boots move across the tile and the door across the hall had opened. It closed shut and muted the footsteps, informing him that Claire had gone into the west office. In all honesty, he almost expected her to hurry down the corridor and leave him behind.

He pushed away from the door and paid more mind to the locker room. There were a few items locked up and it made Alex wonder if they would do for an apology. He frowned as he contemplated what exactly he would be apologizing for. Killing the Infected? Scaring her?

Eliminating the threat had been necessary. It might have scared her, but at least Claire was still alive. He just hoped that the supplies would smooth things over.

Alex reached forward and pried the door in front of him open. True to it's name, the important lockers were indeed locked. All it took was a flex of his muscles and it was his for the grabbing. He went across each door and retrieved the items.

Then he reached the back of the room.

A gun was nestled contently within the weapon locker with some ammunition tucked beside it. It had a large, single black barrel with a smooth, red mahogany stock and matching grip. _A GM-79, _his mind informed. The knowledge most likely came from one of those soldiers he has lingering around. _A grenade launcher._

He would admit, he was probably a little _too _eager to get his hands on the prize. Instead of popping off the door like he intended, Alex had made the mistake of ripping it off. He blinked once at the door in his hand before tossing it aside. He returned his attention to the gun and lifted it from it's resting place. Alex grinned as the firearm in his hands.

Oh, _hell _yeah.

He couldn't wait to try this thing out.


	4. III - What Are You Licking At?

**_Thank you guys so much for being patient and sticking with me. :D I don't think I've ever replied to this, but in regards to Branagh getting cured of the virus, the T-virus ended up being something designed to mutate. Blacklight itself consistently mutates. To have Blacklight try absorbing the T-virus from Branagh's cells is a danger in itself because it's known for it's endless consumption, so not only could Alex potentially absorb more than he intended, he might be inflicting Branagh with Blacklight as well. Also, I believe that when the hospital in RE went down, the doctors already tried using the usual methods to get rid of the T-virus to no avail._**

**_I plan on doing something with Heller. I kinda liked the guy, you get to see a lot of his fatherly side at the end of his story. If I figure something out, he's definitely going to be limited on the F-bomb, and he's most certainly not going to be the ball of hot rage we all come to know. What do you guys think of the chapter names? My attempts of humor doesn't fit in the story, so I've been putting them as chapter titles instead. :)_**

* * *

_"Most people don't believe something can happen until it already has. That's not stupidity or weakness, that's just human nature." ~Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War_

* * *

It didn't take long for Alex to return to the hall. It took even less afterwards for Claire to make it back.

"Find anything?"

Claire hesitated a split second before shaking her head. "Not much. Some bullets, gunpowder, and an attachment, but that's it. You?"

She was still uneasy around him, but it was a huge difference between unease and pure fear. He'll take what he could get.

"A knife," he grunted. "More ammunition for your gun. A hip pouch. And then, this." He held up the GM-74. If Claire blanched at the sight of it, he definitely didn't notice. Alex found himself glad that he didn't mention the grenade that he intended to keep a hold of. He passed all but the explosives and a single knife to Claire, starting with the pouch. She attached that to her waist then tucked the rest of the items within.

They didn't need to state that they should probably get going. Alex moved first, continuing through the rest of the hall with Claire at a short distance behind him. He didn't mind since it kept her out of his crosshairs. Actually, that's probably why she did it.

"There's a door over here," Claire muttered. Alex has given the Infected at the window an impassive glance before he began up the staircase. S.T.A.R.S. had to be on one of the other floors and he wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. Instead, he found Claire pushing through the mentioned door with her handgun raised, and Alex felt like he was trying to take care of a misbehaving child that kept running off to do their own thing. Another feeling that most certainly stemmed from his inaccessible memories.

He huffed, most certainly trying _not _trying to facepalm at the luck he has been dealt. At least she wasn't screaming after she disappeared inside, which could mean that she was either ambushed or completely fine.

Alex descended the staircase that he had half-risen on and walked over to the door. The plaque on the side read _"Dark Room". _He couldn't imagine what supplies would be helpful from a room that develops photographs.

He pushed through the door and found the place lit up. It had a cozy feel to it, like this little room was in it's own little safe bubble hidden away from the rest of the world.

"It's a bit relaxing," Claire stated. She had round the corner of the smaller room that was connected to here. "I can almost forget the epidemic outside."

Alex grunted quietly in agreement. He raked his gaze over the room, not quite finding anything of use here. Either there was nothing to grab or Claire had already gotten to it.

"I think I'm going to take a break," she stated. Claire made her way to the table and sat down on the chair with a pained grunt. Alex would have denied doing so if she hadn't rubbed her back with a grimace. He thought back to when he first saw her from the top of the buildings, and the way that pain ran through her actions.

"Let me see your back."

She shot Alex a look. It was one that explicitly demanded what the hell he was talking about. He frowned. "I want to see what's bothering you."

Claire thought about it, that fierce stare of her not letting up for an instant. If Alex had been human, he might have felt a bit daunted by that, but since he was currently the most dangerous thing out there...

"Fine," she sighed. Claire twisted in her seat with a grunt so that her back was to Alex. The expression she shot him showed just how much she didn't like the idea; then, very slowly, she moved her hands behind her back and lifted her shirt up only halfway.

Halfway was enough. Alex could see the bluish-purple decorating her skin. It crept up her back and disappeared beneath her outfit, but he could imagine that those bruises took up a majority of her back. It was amazing that she could even move normally considering how much it must've throbbed. Claire released a grunt as she allowed her jacket and top to slip through her fingers and adjusted it before she slowly turned back to face Alex with a rather expectant look. It was almost as though she was expecting him to say something.

Alex felt like he lucked out when he heard the sound of breaking glass.

"I'll go check it out," he muttered. "Stay here."

"...Okay."

Alex dipped back out into the hallway. He had to remind himself that Claire was human, and thus couldn't presevere like he could. She also didn't seem the type to take a break just because she felt like it.

The glass he heard came from the Infected he had bypassed earlier. It moaned quietly as it sat up and rose to his feet. Alex glanced back at the door with his thermal vision active to see if Claire had gotten up or moved. She hadn't.

_Excellent._

Confident that he wouldn't get caught, Alex dug his tendrils into the shambling Infected. He focused on implementing it's genetic material into his cells, because he had no doubt that seeing this virus would undoubtedly help in the near future. It gave him far less living material to work with, so he wasn't surprised when the remains dripped onto the floor without him having anything to show for it.

That's fine. After all, Alex could hear another shuffling around just a couple stories above him.

A couple more Infected later and Alex returned to the dark room to find Claire standing and waiting. She raised an eyebrow when she saw him enter. "You took longer than I thought you would."

"Yeah..." He motioned for her to follow. "Let's go."

They were in the hallway once more. Alex ascended the staircase with what he hoped to be the last time tonight, barely paying any mind to the fact that Claire had come across the gooey remains of an Infected.

"Was this here before?" she inquired. Her features were twisted with genuine curiosity and disgust. Alex shrugged in response and kept going.

They were on the second floor now. Claire found herself drifting off to inspect the locker room, which Alex had to do his best to not groan in annoyance. She was certain that they needed everything they could get their hands on, Alex was the only one that knew that they didn't.

She came out of it with more ammunition, a key for a dial pad that she wouldn't get rid of despite Alex's reassurances that it was useless, and a healthy scare from a corpse. At least, Alex was confident that it was a corpse. It didn't move even when it got kicked through the steam that emitted from a punctured water heater. So with the locker room cleared, they moved to the third floor.

"Look at this."

Claire had stopped Alex to hold up a skeleton key with a spade-shaped bow. It was resting on the table just shy from the gaping hole in the wall. "Have you noticed that some of the doors have symbols on them?"

"No."

And Alex hadn't. There was no point when he could literally kick open any door in his way. So did that mean that this key had a corresponding door? What kind of police station had that?

"Oh."

The door led to another corridor. Alex and Claire had full view of the storm pelting the window several yards in front of them. They continued walking, only for Claire to halt when something flashed across the window with a snarl.

"What the hell was that?" Claire demanded. She hung a little bit closer to Alex, her blue gaze fixated on the glass with pure apprehension. She didn't appear conscious of her actions, so Alex did them both a favor and kept going like nothing had happened.

"Stage two of virus evolution," he mused. Claire might not have seen it clearly but Alex had the full image in his mind. They were like smaller, weaker Hunters.

"So that's the mutation that left those claw marks?" she whispered.

"Yes."

"...Fuck."

Alex found himself mildly amused. That felt like something Dana would say, and the two most certainly had similar personalities. It was mostly regarding their hard-headed stubbornness though. If they met they would either be best friends or get along like a house on fire.

They kept moving and the hallway soon gave way to a storage room. There was a thick smell of blood here that reminded Alex of the hallway with the _keep out _sign. Claire found herself more ammunition, and they reconvened in front of black iron bars that held a statue with a medallion behind it.

As well as seven dead bodies.

Four of them were Infected. Whether they were actually dead or feinting, Alex couldn't tell. The other three were police officers. Those three were missing their heads.

"Alex... take a look at this."

Claire held out a piece of paper. She had found herself another hip pouch and attached it with the other. Her gaze lingered on the bodies with a solemn air and Alex suspected that it had to do with whatever was written down. He took the paper from her hand and read through it.

He was sneering by the time he finished reading it. Some piece of scum thought that he could play God and decided to round up these officers and stuff them behind bars just because he got "cut off" by a company. This note came from their superior, which meant that this was an inside job. The Infected must've been used for entertainment, then the officers were put down when they were overwhelmed.

"This is sick, even for _humans,_" Alex snarled. To put someone in a cage and watch them get torn to pieces... If he ever found who did this and they still breathed, he would personally enjoy ripping them apart.

"It talked about some C4," Claire murmured. Her voice brought Alex back to the fact that he wasn't alone, and thus couldn't go hunt for this piece of shit to his heart's content. "It hasn't been used yet, so it should still be somewhere around the building. If we can get this open, we can get that medallion."

She pointed over at the statue inside the cage. The Maiden Statue, if memory served right.

"It looks like we'll have to come back for it," Alex stated. His tone was a lot less angry than before, but that was only because the target of his aggression was nowhere to be found and he didn't want to scare Claire _again. _She was already giving him a wary glance every now and then since he had read the note as if he was a ticking time bomb. Alex gave the bodies one last, dark look before grunting and heading in the direction of the closest door.

He found himself in a library. They were on the second floor, standing on top of the balcony with a couple Infected moving down below. One was merely wandering, the other one was feasting. Alex pursed his lips as he thought about trying out his launcher. If he got the two of them together, he could see how many he needed to take one of these guys down.

_"Hey, Claire," _the radio crackled. The mentioned woman lifted up from her waist in the duration of it's pause. _"...Is Alex still there?" _Claire raised an eyebrow before she passed the radio over to his waiting hand.

"This is Alex. Over."

There was a longer pause.

_"I got something I want to show you two. Meet me back in the main hall. Over."_

Alex shot Claire a glance. "10-4, lieutenant, we're on our way. Over and out." He handed the radio back to her. She looked surprised as she clipped it back on.

"You speak cop?"

"Sure," he stated dismissively. Alex turned back to the puzzle on hand. That was to draw the Infected toge– Ah, it would seem that it wasn't needed. The wandering Infected had made it's way to the one eating. Alex raised his launcher with a feral grin and fired. There was nothing more satisfying than watching things burn. Even if those things weren't capable of screaming.

The two collected what loot they could find. Claire seemed adamant on lending Alex yet another knife that she lifted from a police corpse. "It's probably better if you have a backup knife. It's less... explosive."

It took a lot of effort not to roll his eyes. Alex pulled his own knife from his pocket. "Branagh already beat you to it."

Claire stared for a long moment. "So... you're telling me that you had a knife all this time, and you haven't used it?"

"Yes."

"_Why?_"

Alex scowled. "It's brittle and I'm not going to waste it on something soft."

She gaped at him. Whatever the reason was, Alex found that he really didn't care. He pushed the door open at the end of the set of stairs and took a quick glance around. He paused on the Unicorn Statue, but his gaze settled on more important things. Like the map pinned to the board.

It was a map that showed off the remaining floors. He found that S.T.A.R.S. office was on the second floor, which shouldn't be too much work. The staircase they bypassed had led up to it but it was blocked off by furniture, and the locker room still had it's water heater problem. The door he was in front of currently led to a hall directly to it, which he quickly tested only to discover that it was locked. An easy fix.

"Alex?" Claire had poked her head into the room just in time to see him pull his leg back. "What are you–?"

_Crrrrrsh._

He blinked as his foot remained suspended. While the lock had remained strong, the door, on the other hand, had _not._ It now had a gaping hole in it's center that only grew larger when Alex ripped his leg out. He observed the barrier for a long moment, taking note of the fact that not even the hinges looked prepared to be ripped from the wall. He wasn't kicking anywhere close to full strength, but still...

"I should have burned it," he muttered. He leaned his shoulder against the door as he put his hand through the hole and fumbled for the lock mechanism. It clicked and Alex pushed the door open to find himself facing yet another dark hallway.

"What about the medallion," Claire asked behind him.

"Get it. I'm not going far. S.T.A.R.S. should be on this floor."

He didn't wait for a response as he stepped into the hallway. The door shut behind him, only leaving behind a ray of light that shined through the gap. Alex moved brusquely, bypassing a door with a red diamond with his thoughts focused solely on reaching the office. He had barely reached the corner when a large screech sounded through the hallm

Something heavy collided with him. The sheer, unexpected weight threw Alex backwards momentarily and it took him a long moment to register the pain searing in his throat. He blinked and ran his fingers over the area, taking note of how his cells worked posthaste to bind everything back into place. He glanced back to see the flesh non-Hunter climbing on the wall in his direction from the path he had come from. So it could both climb _and _jump. Good to know.

As if sensing that he wasn't dead, it hissed and lunged at Alex again. He retaliated in turn by hooking his fist up from beneath it, effectively making it's fangs click together for only a split second with his collision before it went flying down the hall. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to kill the damn thing and it came right back. It did appear to learn it's lesson however, and kept to a distance, which wouldn't help it in the long run. Alex glanced at the door behind it, the very one he had come through, and flicked his thermal vision for a quick moment to see where Claire was. She was pulling what he assumed to be the medallion from the statue, which meant that he wouldn't have a lot of time to act.

Alex's thoughts were cut off as something pink launched itself from the non-Hunter's mouth. He caught it before it reached him and was momentarily disgusted when he found that it was a tongue. A wet, slimy, wriggling tongue. The creature snarled and pulled backwards, using a surprising amount of strength to reach it's elongated limb. It was attempting to make him fly towards it. He smirked.

_Not on my watch._

Alex yanked the tongue backwards with a snarl of his own. The creature, having not expected it, went flying in his direction. However, it proved to be a quick thinker and extended it's claws. It's about that time that he saw the door at the end of the hallway move, and only had the time to think _"fuck" _before it was upon him.

Alex grabbed both of the creature's wrists before it could even slash him. It hissed and spat, trying to overpower him with it's own weight, which was something that would never work because it weighed about the average size of an human adult. Biting wouldn't work either because Alex still had it's tongue in his hand, and thus it would have to chomp it off in order to get him. No, right now, while Alex was stuck using _normal _strength, they were in a stalemate.

"Alex!" Claire shouted in alarm before she began firing.

The creature flinched when the bullets pierced flesh and it shrieked. Realizing that it was outmatched, it tried it's damndest to get away. It ripped one set of claws out from Alex's hands and he let it, because that would be the last thing it ever did. Alex reached into his pocket when the claws came speeding back towards him and mercilessly stabbed the knife into it's unprotected brain.

The non-Hunter's death throes were vicious and ear-splitting, yet Alex didn't dare let up. He pushed the knife deeper until it's flesh met the hilt and twisted. There was a sharp sound of metal breaking and the hilt snapped off from the blade, breaking just like he thought it would. He kicked it away and watched it still.

It didn't make sense. The first stage of this virus left the Infected as zombies, which meant that they didn't have pain receptors. The second stage obviously did. It was also more capable of thought considering on how it tried to attack Alex from a distance when it knew close combat wouldn't work. Were those effects of the living cells?

"Wasn't that the thing that crossed over the window," Claire asked. She approached Alex with her blue eyes trained on the creature.

"Yes."

She reached him and the creature hadn't moved the slightest bit. Then that gaze of hers found it's way to Alex. "You're not injured? Bit?"

"It was a pain of the neck," he grumbled. "But no, I'm fine."

Claire didn't appear to believe him but it wasn't like there was evidence around to indicate otherwise. He was right about the fact that this specimen was weaker than that of a Hunter. His head was still attached, after all.

"S.T.A.R.S. should be just up ahead."

Claire shot one last glance at the dead creature before she followed Alex down the rest of the hall and into an office.

There were ten desks in the main office. Only a few had appeared to keep their personal items, which Alex speculated to belong to the survivors. Everything else was packed away in boxes. There were also numerous items strewn throughout, and both him and Claire came to a silent agreement to gather what they could. By the time he glanced up, he realized that Claire was busy looking at a picture frame. She noticed him staring and shrugged. "It's cute."

The "it" was a golden retriever. Claire had showed it to Alex, and all he could manage was a blank stare. He didn't find anything cute about it.

"...I'm checking the private office."

He moved around her and began searching the area that he had pointed out. There wasn't anything interesting to find. Some old investigation notes and even another picture of some short-haired girl in gym clothes, but nothing related to Umbrella. He paused with a frown as he became aware of a light buzzing in the back of his mind. It felt... familiar.

"Hey, Alex?" Claire distracted him as she peered into the office. "What are you looking for, exactly?"

With the buzzing forgotten, Alex slammed a drawer shut with a low growl. How was there _nothing?_ Branagh made it sound like S.T.A.R.S. was _good _at their job. "Anything related to where Umbrella visited or worked."

"Oh." She held up a sheet of paper. "What about this? I found it in an envelope. Someone named Jill was addressing my brother. She thought that there was a connection between Umbrella and Gentek."

His interest peaked, Alex held his hand out for the piece of paper. Claire passed it to him without issues and he quickly scanned the contents.

_Chris_

_I caught sight of McMullen getting out of the car with Allman. The CEO of Gentek with Umbrella? It gives me a bad feeling. I'll look into it._

_Jill_

McMullen. Alex pursed his lips in thought. That is– was, Dr. Mercer's superior. Those fragmented memories indicated that he was a stern but kind man whose interest was based solely in science. He had also taken Dr. Mercer under his wing. There had been someone... a woman? Who didn't like that.

"Is this the only thing you found?"

Claire nodded. "Yeah. Is that good enough?"

No, not really, but it shows that Gentek might have some collaboration. "It'll have to do." He dropped the piece of paper on the desk. "Let's see what Branagh wants."

They backtracked to the library where the last door of the second floor rested. It had a spade emblem on it, telling Alex that yes, the skeleton key was needed for some odd reason. They also had a companion that decided to remove itself from it's spot next to the door, so the Infected shambled aimlessly throughout the library. Claire was the one who took that down. Took quite a few bullets to do it too. She used the skeleton key on the door and they both ended back up in the main hall. Alex led the way back to the first floor, where Branagh was looking at his computer. He had a gun in his hand this time. Most likely stemming from paranoia of the Infected since they had left.

"What is it," Claire asked.

Branagh motioned her to move closer and showed her the computer. Alex peered at it, taking note of the unfamiliar person in the grainy picture.

"Oh my god, he made it!"

Branagh raised an eyebrow. Alex shifted his gaze towards Claire with mild interest. "You know him?"

"Yeah, that's Leon... er, Kennedy, I think?"

"The rookie... I thought he looked familiar."

A rookie? This Leon was dressed in civilian clothes as opposed to an actual uniform. Was it his day off?

Branagh pointed his thumb behind him. "You can make it to that courtyard through the second floor, east side."

"Okay, thanks Marvin, we're on it."

"Hold on." Branagh flicked his gaze over to Alex when they began moving. "Claire, you go on ahead. I want to talk to Alex about something."

Alex narrowed his eyes. The thought of leaving Claire alone for that extended period of time sounded like a bad idea. He glanced over at her.

"Don't look at me like that," she huffed. "I'll be fine."

That certainly didn't help sooth his worries but Alex nodded nonetheless. Claire's lips twitched into a smile and she left the two alone by heading up the stairs.

"What did you want," Alex questioned. Branagh met him with a leveled stare that didn't reveal any thoughts he might be thinking of.

"Hold on, not yet."

So this was something he didn't want Claire listening to. Something that required space. Alex's mind reeled as he thought of numerous possibilities. It wasn't until they heard the door to the second floor shut that Branagh spoke. "Now, I'm only going to ask you once."

Branagh's level stare of his had turned into a steely resolve, and Alex soon found himself staring at the barrel to a gun.

"What are you?"


End file.
